After the match, Murasakibara laments on how unentertaining the matches have become recently as Kise suggests having a scoring contest as a source of motivation and also for betting on random stuff. Murasakibara, Aomine and surprisingly Akashi agree to join in while Midorima decides not to. Akashi states that this could further reduce the chances of not losing a match. Kuroko, meanwhile, is found missing. Kuroko at a quiet corner of the stadium, as he attempts to call Ogiwara, but he then changes his mind.

A fateful encounter

Meanwhile, Ogiwara is seen winning his respective match for his team, Meikō, scoring a lay up in the first match of the Nationals preliminaries. The match ends in favor of Meikō at 71 points to 68.

At the second round of the preliminaries, Teikō wins another easy match against Seto Junior High. While the players comment on how insanely strong Teikō is, the Generation of Miracles comment that they are barely entertained when they win. After the match, Kuroko tells his teammates off for being disrespectful to the opposition, but he is easily disregarded by them. Kuroko feels offended and is shocked by the team's attitude.

Kuroko watches and envies Seirin's enthusiasm for basketball

Just as Teikō exits the stadium, they have a fateful encounter with Seirin High who were on their way to the next stadium. The Seirin players comment on Teikō's menacing aura.

On the way back, Kuroko spots Junpei Hyūga's student ID card on the floor as he recognises the ID and the latter is a student from Seirin. Kuroko requests permission to go back and return it. He leaves with Momoi only to find out it was too late as Seirin's match had already started. Kuroko observes as he sees enthusiasm on all the players of Seirin, stating to Momoi that they put their everything into the sport, and he envies them. Kuroko then indirectly returns the student ID to a responsible source and leaves.